The present invention relates to artificial flowers and especially to artificial flowers which change color responsive to changes in temperature.
In the past, a variety of artificial flowers have been provided for use as decoration in the home and office. Typical, artificial flowers are made of various materials such as polymers, silk, cloth, and even dried plants and are designed to look like real plants including stems, leaves, and often blossoms. A typical artificial flower can be seen in prior U.S. Pat. No. 1,938,736 to Berman for a poinsettia plant having lights formed in the end of the stem for lighting up the plant.
In recent years, thermochromatic liquid crystals have been developed in a variety of mixtures for use in a variety of applications and are known to change polarization and color responsive to temperature changes in the liquid. It is also known to microencapsulate the thermochromatic liquid crystals. Prior art products which display a design or change responsive to temperature changes may be seen in the Kogut U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,113, for a toilet training aid and method having porous sheet of paper with an invisible picture thereon placed over a toilet bowl which produces an image when wetted by warm liquid. In the Kimura U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,462, heat activated indicia on textiles uses thermochromatic colors formed into a textile to form an image. The indicia is not visible to the naked eye in the normal ambient temperatures but when subjected to a predetermined temperature, such as when immersed in bath water, an image appears to the user.
In the present invention, an artificial flower is formed having petals with thermochromatic liquid crystal mixtures of predetermined mixtures in a variety of leaves to form changes in the leaf color when the room or nearby temperature changes to thereby change colors so that the artificial plant appears in a variety of colored petals which constantly change.